Five biggest Irish American advertising “Fails” (PHOTOS)

An Irish newspaper recently printed some of the worst ads ever made. We thought we’d add the Irish American angle.

Oscar Pistorius

The now infamous Paddy Power Irish bookmaker ad featured accused athlete Oscar Pistorius. The Irish bookmaker was offering to refund bets if the South African was found not guilty of murder. Their slogan was “Money back if he walks,” but Pistorius is a double amputee!

The mist of manure

“Mist” is German for manure, so the Germans were no doubt not impressed being asked to raise a glass of Irish ‘Crap’ liqueur when Irish Mist launched a campaign there.

Black and Tan ice cream

The lovable Ben and Jerry’s brand upset Irish Americans with an ice cream to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in 2006. A glass of Guinness mixed with beer was named the “Black and Tan.” That drew some icy comments and almost caused a meltdown.

Nike Black and Tan sneakers

Nike introduced their new Black and Tan sneaker for St. Patrick’s Day 2012, also thinking it was called after a popular drink, a mix of Guinness and beer.

Not so!

A apologetic spokesman for Nike, hoping to quench a growing firestorm, told The Daily Telegraph: “This month Nike is scheduled to release a version of the Nike SB Dunk Low that has been unofficially named by some using a phrase that can be viewed as inappropriate and insensitive. We apologize. No offense was intended.”

But critics have called foul because the name echoes the moniker of the perhaps most hated British regiment ever to patrol Ireland. A group of British World War I veterans and hired would-be mercenaries who patrolled the nation between 1920 and 1921 were nicknamed the Black and Tans after their makeshift uniforms.

Bed, Bath & Beyond

In 2014 the Bed Bath and Beyond folk thought it might be fun to throw a few darts at the drunken Irish. Did not go down well!

"Be assured that Bed Bath & Beyond meant no disrespect to your organization, nor to others of Irish heritage, and we apologize," they wrote to the AOH. "We have instructed our stores to remove from sale those items identified by you. We have taken the additional step of asking our buyers to be vigilant with subsequent orders to avoid this issue in the future."

The move came a day after IrishCentral reported the chain was selling items that the AOH said were deeply defaming to Irish Americans through their Christmas Tree shops.

Among the items were an "I’ll Be Irish in a few Beers" glass and a "St Patrick’s Countdown Calendar Spinner Party Game" that reportedly encouraged binge drinking.